Help ‘Stamp Out’ hunger

May 4, 2014

To the Editor:

America is known throughout the world as the land of plenty.

For many people living in our country, hunger is still a reality. Today, 49 million Americans, including 16 million children, are struggling with hunger. These are often hard-working adults, children and seniors who simply cannot make ends meet and are forced to go without food for several meals, or even days.

On Saturday, the National Association of Letter Carriers and United States Postal Service, along with other partners, will join forces to help Stamp Out Hunger in communities large and small.

Across the nation, 200,000 letter carriers will collect food donations in more than 10,000 communities and deliver them to local food banks and other hunger relief organizations.

This is the 22nd anniversary of the nation’s largest single-day food drive, having collected more than one billion pounds of food since its inception in 1993. In 2013, generous Americans donated 74 million pounds of food, which marked the 10th consecutive year that at least 70 million pounds were collected.

Participating in the food drive is easy. Just leave a bag of nonperishable food items, such as canned soup, vegetables, fruits, juices, boxed goods, pasta and rice, where the letter carrier normally delivers your mail. The food will then be picked up and delivered to the local food bank.